1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a process for reducing the attrition of reconstituted tobacco and increasing the manufacturing capacity of a primary processing facility and more particularly to processing reconstituted tobacco by bypassing several conventional primary processing steps.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the manufacturing of smoking articles, and particularly cigarettes, tobacco leaves are generally aged at specific temperatures and humidity conditions for a pre-selected period of time. The tobacco leaves are then separated into lamina, stems and veins. The stems and veins are not suitable, without further processing, for use in a tobacco process. Thus, the stems, veins, dust, fines and other tobacco materials, are then reprocessed into a tobacco product referred to as reconstituted tobacco.
During the manufacture of reconstituted tobacco, a continuous sheet of reconstituted tobacco is produced which undergoes pre-drying, cutting into shapes approximating that of tobacco lamina, final drying, and compressed in shipping containers. This product is referred to as conventional reconstituted tobacco. The shipping containers are then transferred to a primary processing facility, unpacked, then processed through the primary processing facility along with tobacco lamina. The above steps described during the manufacture of reconstituted tobacco following pre-drying result in attrition of reconstituted tobacco, which generates fines, results in yield losses and reduces quality of conventional reconstituted tobacco, and quality of final cigarettes. The unpacking and processing which occurs at the primary processing facility results in additional attrition of reconstituted tobacco which further generates fines, results in further yield losses and further reduces quality of conventional reconstituted tobacco and quality of final cigarettes.
It is an object of the present invention to reduce attrition of the reconstituted tobacco through removal of several conventionally accepted steps in the processing of conventional reconstituted tobacco.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved process allowing reconstituted tobacco to bypass primary processing steps up through final cut tobacco drying by separately cutting conventional reconstituted tobacco using a tobacco cutting machine.
It is even a further object of the present invention to provide an improved process for the manufacture of reconstituted tobacco by eliminating the conventional steps of cutting reconstituted tobacco into shapes approximating that of tobacco lamina, processing through final drying and compressing in shipping containers at the reconstituted tobacco facility, and additionally bypassing the primary processing steps up through final cut-tobacco drying. That is after reconstituted tobacco exits a pre-drying operation it is cut into rectangular sheets having a width approximating that of the mouth opening of a tobacco cutter and a length appropriate for a tobacco cutter, then stacked for subsequent transfer to a primary processing facility, or alternatively, after reconstituted tobacco exits the pre-drying operation, the reconstituted tobacco is rolled into a single-sheet roll having the same width as a sheet of conventional reconstituted tobacco that exits pre-drying, called a master roll, wherein the master roll is subsequently cut into shorter rolls, called daughter rolls, the daughter rolls having a sheet width the same as the mouth opening of a tobacco cutter. The rectangular sheets of reconstituted tobacco or daughter rolls of reconstituted tobacco are transferred to a primary processing facility for further cutting and blending.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method for cutting reconstituted tobacco which allows the capacity of a primary tobacco processing facility, that processes reconstituted tobacco with lamina tobacco, to be increased without modifying or replacing processing equipment.
In carrying out the process of a first embodiment of the present invention, conventional reconstituted tobacco is shipped to and unpacked at the primary processing facility. The reconstituted tobacco is then loosened by conventional means allowing it to be fed to a tobacco cutting device, cut into shreds appropriate for blending with cut tobacco, then a pre-selected amount of cut reconstituted tobacco is blended with a pre-selected amount of cut tobacco for further processing.
In carrying out the process of a second embodiment of the present invention, a multiple-layer stack of sheets of reconstituted sheet tobacco in a semi-continuous or continuous web is fed directly to a tobacco cutting machine wherein the tobacco cutting device is a rotary drum cutter having controlled-strand length knives disposed along the outer periphery thereof for cutting the sheets of tobacco into well defined strands.
More particularly, the second embodiment of the present invention provides a process using sheets having a width approximately equal to the width of the mouth opening of a tobacco cutter wherein a plurality of said sheets are positioned on top of each other by simultaneously unrolling a plurality of rolls of single sheets; or alternatively, using sheets having a width approximately equal to the width of the mouth opening of a tobacco cutter by placing a plurality of said sheets on top of each other in an unrolled condition. The sheets of the reconstituted tobacco are then fed into a compression band of a tobacco cutter and a pre-selected amount of cut reconstituted tobacco is then blended with a pre-selected amount of cut tobacco for further processing.
All of the above outlined objectives are to be understood as exemplary only and many more objectives of the invention may be gleaned from the disclosure herein. Therefore, no limiting interpretation of the objectives noted are to be understood without further reading of the entire specification, claims, and drawings included herewith.